How Aviva can help you maximise marketing impact without breaking the bank

Authored by Aviva

Over the last 12 months, we’ve been pulling out all the stops to help make marketing for our brokers simple, efficient and cost-effective.

In this article, Maria Ketteringham, our Marketing Support Manager, shares her views on how you can bolster your business’s marketing activities without the need for massive spend or resource commitment.

“When operating in a hard market, it makes sense for you to turn to marketing to differentiate your business and demonstrate value over price. But when you're busy, how can you deliver great marketing content while not taking up too much time or money?

Many brokers are unaware of how much support is available from insurers. Good marketing can help you increase client sentiment, improve retention rates and attract interest from prospects who may be finding their broker only shows up when it’s time to renew.

In Aviva’s 2022 Broker Barometer report, 31% of brokers said they were planning new marketing initiatives in 2023, yet what we’ve seen is that a lack of time, budget and expertise have stopped brokers from putting a proper marketing plan in place.”

Fail to plan, plan to fail

“If you do one thing to make sure your marketing activity delivers the return you're looking for, it would be to create a marketing plan. Too often, brokers will jump straight into tactical activity like setting up an Instagram account, without really knowing what they’re looking to achieve or how. Then, when the new business fails to arrive, they dismiss marketing as being ‘a waste of time’.

Simply speaking, a marketing plan is there to help deliver against business objectives. It doesn’t have to be complex; it’s about focusing marketing efforts in the right place at the right time and being clear on what you’re looking to achieve. It can be as simple as:

• Analysing where your business is now
• What your goals and objectives are
• Who your target audience is
• How and where you marketing efforts should be focused

Numerous marketing plan templates are available online for you, including on Broker Mentor, our online marketing support hub. Broker Mentor provides you with a two-page Marketing Plan template full of helpful questions to guide you through creating a focused and effective marketing plan.”

Content is king

“At a time when ChatGPT is being hailed as the go-to for quick content creation, it doesn’t remove the work needed to make sure the content is legal, compliant and in the right tone for your client.

Free advice and educational materials are a fantastic way to show your clients and prospects that you’re interested in helping their business succeed and aren't just there to transact their insurance. Creating positive sentiments can make a big difference to client retention and driving growth. The more a customer sees your expertise, the more likely they are to recommend you or come to you when they’re considering their next insurance product.

Ready-made insights from insurers can therefore be an invaluable source of content, but brokers often overlook this option. In most cases, insurers’ content is written professionally, put through the rigour of approvals and should therefore offer a fantastic source of information that, with just a little bit of tailoring, can be shared with your clients.

Resources such as our Broker Create tool on Broker Mentor help you to create personalized, co-branded, professionally curated content, making it easier to share information with your clients. For example, you can quickly distribute cyber, underinsurance and risk management information to your clients without having to hire a designer, copywriter or spend any money.”

Polish up your digital profile

“While sharing useful content on email, social media and in person is great for staying front of mind, your website also plays a critical role in how your clients and prospects feel about them. Even job applicants are likely to decide whether to apply for a role based on what they see online. However, our annual review of over 180 brokerages’ digital profiles showed that 88% had either a low or mid-performing online presence.

What we’ve seen is that brokers are often guilty of leaving their websites and social media accounts unattended, forgetting the negative impression this can have on prospects and potential recruits. That’s why we launched our Digital Aptitude reports, helping brokers like you see how you're performing against defined benchmarks, as well as against your peers.

Regularly reviewing your website, quickly responding to positive and negative reviews and having up-to-date LinkedIn profiles and social media accounts are the bare minimum. Once you have the fundamentals in place, that’s when you can explore how you can leverage your positive online presence.”

See marketing as an enabler

“While many might believe marketing is a buzzword or just another thing on a long to-do list, when properly considered, it provides a real opportunity for growth. It doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming and there’s a wealth of free resources available from insurers to help brokers get started.

Take your marketing to the next level

We’ve a wealth of insight, templates and actionable materials that you can use today to help take your marketing to the next level.

Some of our support includes:

• A ready-made underinsurance ‘Campaign in a Box’ with email and social media templates, useful statistics and supporting visual assets
• Countless new templates on Broker Create, found on Broker Mentor, that you can dual-brand and share directly with your clients
• Our Digital Aptitude Tool helping brokers to improve their online presence
• And for educational content and templates, including how to write your own marketing plan, you can check out our Broker Mentor platform

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Join our dedicated Marketing Community Group and connect with Maria Ketteringham on LinkedIn.

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